Early spring heatwave builds as April begins

Wednesday

Unseasonably warm temperatures will be in place through Saturday, the National Weather Service says. (Credit: NWS-Miami)

Friday is the first day of April, and the new month is going to start out hot — no foolin’.

Temperatures will be in the mid- to upper-80s in Palm Beach both Friday and Saturday, with low 90s inland, according to the National Weather Service. Those highs should be short of records, but sultry nighttime temperatures in the mid- to upper 70s may be close to record warm lows.

Weather Underground and AccuWeather are forecasting highs in Palm Beach of 86 degrees on Friday and 87 on Saturday. Friday’s forecast high is 89 in Wellington and 90 in Belle Glade.

March 2016, meanwhile, will go into the record books as unusually warm, with an average high of near 82 degrees and an average low near 68. Normal Palm Beach highs and lows in March range from 78-80 and 61-64. Overall temperatures will be more than 4 degrees above normal by the time the ink dries in the National Weather Service’s ledger.

That’s not quite as warm as March 2015, which ended 5.5 degrees above normal.

Despite this week’s heavy rainfall in Palm Beach — and earlier flooding rains in North Palm Beach County — March precipitation was more than 2 inches short of average through Wednesday.

Final rainfall totals for Thursday included 1.81 inches at Palm Beach International Airport, making it the wettest day in the Palm Beach area since the Jan. 27 deluge delivered 4.79 inches of rain.

Palm Beach checked in with an even heftier 2.79 inches on Thursday.

Does the weekend’s springtime heat wave mean that cool breezes are gone for good? Apparently not, as forecasters see significantly chillier conditions returning next week.

A cold front is expected to slide through South Florida on Sunday, with a second shot of cooler and drier air arriving on Tuesday, according to National Weather Service forecasters in Miami.

AccuWeather has forecast highs in the mid- to upper-70s next week in Palm Beach. The coolest day may be Wednesday, with an anticipated high of just 75 — the normal high for early January — and a low of 64. In Wellington, lows could sink into the low 60s next week.

And — at least for now — the Weather Underground forecast is for a low of 59 degrees in Palm Beach next Friday, April 8. Temperatures in inland areas could sink into the mid-50s, Weather Underground says.